Brimmond cranes aid mattress recovery campaign

The Aberdeenshire-based company, which specialises in hydraulic, mechanical and electrical engineering solutions, used its Effer 175000 6s Marine Knuckle Boom Crane to support the five-week project.

“Our highly skilled operators and state-of-the-art crane allowed the mattresses to be stacked so well it allowed the piles to be 20% higher, meaning the number of port calls were reduced, saving on overall vessel usage and therefore overall costs,” said Alan Glennie, technical director of the project.

“As far as we know, this is the first time a marine knuckle boom crane has been specifically mobilised to a vessel for concrete mattress recovery.”

Quick work

Brimmond’s crane was utilised to manoeuvre and stack mattresses on deck which had been recovered from the seabed by the vessels main crane.

This meant the job was undertaken at a significantly quicker rate as the cranes only had to focus on their own individual jobs – enabling the project to run safely, efficiently and effectively.

Prior to the project Brimmond Group engineers carried out a job specific load test and site integration test.

The crane, which is the biggest of its type in Europe for hire, has the ability to lift 5350 kgs at 21.47 metres and up to 20650 kgs at 7.08 metres. In utilising Brimmond’s crane for the project, the client estimated that the project length was reduced by up to 10%.

For this particular job, Brimmond Group’s design engineers modified the base of the crane, reducing the overall footprint by half, once installed.

Brimmond Group, along with its collective of organisations Preffered Marine and Rigrun Europe, offers mechanical, hydraulic and electrical services and equipment covering a wide range of sectors including oil and gas, decommissioning, renewable, marine and oilfield services.

By Anne-Marie Causer